Shot, yet 4 hospitals could not treat victim

NST: MALACCA: A used-car dealer who was shot in the gut had to stomach the pain for several hours yesterday after four hospitals could not treat him for a variety of reasons.
Tioh Geok Piu, 56, could not have surgery at the Malacca Hospital where he arrived an hour after the 1.45am incident as the CT scanning machine had malfunctioned.
Doctors told his wife Lau Hong Eng, 46, that hospital procedure required a CT scan before such an operation.
Calls to three private hospitals — Putra Hospital, Makhota Hospital and Pantai Specialist Centre — proved futile.
Lau said the hospitals told her that they did not treat gunshot wounds.
She then spent three hours trying to convince doctors at Malacca Hospital to operate on her husband without the CT scan.
They finally relented at 7am after an abdominal X-ray.
Tioh is fighting for his life at the intensive care unit of the hospital.
The drama began earlier when Tioh arrived at his double-storey house in Taman Setia Jaya, Bukit Piatu, to find two men at the gate.
The men, who were armed with a gun and a knife, forced him into the house and demanded cash and valuables.
"I was asleep but woke up when I heard my room door opening. I saw two men with my husband, one of whom was holding a gun," Lau said.
The robbers then tied her hands with a rope before ransacking the room for valuables.
The robbers found a Rolex watch, a gold chain, a passport and some cash.
"One of them then shouted at my husband in Cantonese that he had such a big house but so little in cash and valuables."
Tioh told the robbers that he had just returned from Kuala Lumpur and had left most of the valuables there.
It is believed that Tioh struggled with one of the robbers who then shot him.
The bullet entered the left side of his stomach and exited on the other side.
The robbers then pushed Tioh and Lau into the toilet and fled.
A few minutes later, Lau managed to untie herself and told her 15-year-old daughter, who had hidden in her room with her two siblings, to call the police and a friend in Semabok.
The friend rushed Tioh to Malacca Hospital.
The robbers dropped the gun, a Wincester .380, in their haste.
State police chief Datuk Mortadza Nazarene said Tioh was believed to have been shot when he tried to fight the robbers.
Meanwhile, Makhota Hospital public relations executive Jessica Yeo said Tioh could not be treated as the hospital’s cardio-thorasic surgeon was on leave.
Pantai Specialist Centre chief spokesman said no beds were available at the hospital’s ICU.
Putra Hospital chief executive officer Radhana Salleh said she would investigate the matter.